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India Prime Wind Turbine Manufacturer

India ShoreAlternative energy sources, such as wind turbines have been in the news a lot lately. And one Indian company, Suzlon Ltd is now making a name for itself as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wind turbines that generate electric power. Suzlon’s story began in 1995 with nothing more than an idea to find a way to create reliable electric power to a textile company in the Indian state of Gujarat. The company’s founder, Mr. Tulsi Tanti, had heard about the use of wind turbines to create electricity and decided to form his own wind turbine manufacturing co. as a subsidiary to his textile concern. Starting out with only 20 employees, Mr. Tanti built a prototype wind turbine generator facility that was able to generate around 3 MW of power which was about enough to power his textile factory. Buoyed by this modest success, Tanti decided to take a big risk and devote his finances and personal energy into manufacturing wind turbines.

Since then, he’s never looked back as his company has now grown in only 13 years into a multi million dollar concern that has branches in 16 countries, especially in Europe and the USA. From only 3 MW, his turbines now generate thousands of mega watts of clean, non-polluting electrical power which help satisfy the electrical power needs of large manufacturers such as TATA Automobile Company (largest in India) and municipal power entities such as Edison Light and Power Company in southern California. His company is the fifth largest in the world wind turbine industry, with over 10.5% of total global production and electricity production. From only 20, the company has now grown to over 13,000 employees from 14 different countries.

Suzlon targets its turbines in areas that have a plentiful supply of his product’s power source, i.e. wind. For this reason, his turbines have found ready markets in American states like California, Illinois, and Texas, as well as in European countries like Spain, Portugal, Germany and Denmark.

Since Suzlon’s wind turbines are virtually non-polluting, they are one of brightest future sources of world energy. They can be installed virtually anywhere that there is a readily available wind source of at least 10 -15 km per hour. The turbines can operate year round, and even in the coldest winters or hottest summers.

The future definitely looks bright to this company that is making it’s mark as a world supplier of clean electrical energy; and is a true friend of the world’s environment.

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The Lexus Hybrid Car

The Lexus Corporation, Toyota’s upscale luxury automobile division, believes that hybrid automobiles are more than just environmental friendly cars – they represent a new philosophy in automobile engineering that is in tune with today’s desires for comfort and luxury while being aware of environment realities.

Based on a new ecological design concept known as Super Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicles (SULEV’s) the Lexus Corporation has devoted much time and effort into producing some of the finest and most environmental friendly hybrid vehicles produced in the world today. The Lexus hybrid fleet are built around the following model designs: the GS Hybrid, LS Hybrid, and the RX Luxury Hybrid Utility Vehicle.

While the entire Toyota hybrid auto concept has produced the leading hybrid cars sold on the market today with it’s Prius hybrid line, Lexus has gone one step further by introducing three truly luxury hybrid models which are designed to appeal not only to the most discretional consumer tastes, but to their budgets as well. All of the Lexus hybrid vehicles are designed to run cleaner and more economically than previous models, without compromising comfort and luxury. Though all models follow the purest hybrid concept of balancing performance with both an electric and gasoline engines, Lexus hybrid vehicles are supplied with larger, more powerful engines which are designed to provide maximum performance and torque without causing harmful emissions and wasteful fuel consumption.

Customers who are looking for a hybrid model in a large luxury sedan, will find the Lexus LS Prestige Hybrid Luxury Sedan to be much to their liking. The LS is equipped with a fuel burning 5 Liter V-8 engine for maximum highway performance, and a sophisticatedly designed electric engine for city driving or driving in congested areas. The ultimate engineering balance between both engines includes the recharging ability of a specially designed generator to keep the electric engine’s storage batteries at full power.

The GS 450 Hybrid Sedan has a smaller 3.5 liter V-6 engine for greater fuel economy. It is the perfect choice for those who still desire a luxury sedan while having the economy and environmental advantages of a true hybrid car.

For those wanting the economy and environmental benefits of a hybrid, but desire a four wheel drive utility vehicle, the Lexus RX 400h definitely fills the bill. This rugged five door car with a 286 hp V-6 engine is rugged enough to take you virtually anywhere; while it’s electric engine allows quiet, clean and economical driving in the most congested city or freeway driving. The RX’s features make it a true SULEV vehicle.

All three cars come with a special Electronically Controlled Continuous Variable transmission (ECVT) and all wheel ventilated disc brakes for added safety and heat dispersion during emergency stops. All the luxury features you would expect to find in a fine Lexus automobile are standard on each car, including computerized Directional Service Providers (DSP) and even vocal directional navigation systems available on demand. Fine leather upholstery is also available on all models.

Lexus’ bottom line means that you don’t have to comprise on luxury to own a state of the art hybrid car.

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Hybrid Cars Green Transportation Now

The Lexus HybridGlobal warming and the high price of crude oil has made the hybrid car an ecological innovation which is gaining immensely in popularity. For those who are not yet familiar with this new concept, a hybrid vehicle is a car or other type of vehicle in which two types of power, combustion and electricity, are used to provide more fuel economy as well as less exhaust emissions. A hybrid vehicle, or parallel engine hybrid to be exact, uses both a gasoline powered engine and an electric one to provide power. The two engines are usually mounted at opposite ends of the vehicle, with the gasoline powered one in front, and the electric one in the rear. Specially designed batteries are mounted in the floor of the vehicle, and they provide power to the electric engine to power the vehicle in more congested driving situations such as heavy highway traffic or city driving. By utilizing a concept of kinetic energy and special generators, the batteries for the electric engine are constantly being charged while the vehicle is in motion.

Some hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius and Lexus GS 450h, have specially designed transmissions to help conserve fuel when the gasoline engine is being used and to assist either the gasoline or electric engine with the power they need to travel at sufficient speeds on interstate highways and other motorways.

When the electric engine is being utilized to power the vehicle, not only is it more silent, but virtually no exhaust emissions are being emitted into the atmosphere, which is a great benefit against the “greenhouse effect”, largely responsible for global warming.

A hybrid car can achieve a fuel mileage capability of around 55 miles to the gallon as compared with even the most fuel efficient gasoline or diesel powered cars which average around 30-35 miles per gallon. The purpose of a hybrid drive system is two-fold: to improve fuel economy and to reduce polluting exhaust emissions of both carbon dioxide (Co2), which is the greatest contributor to global warming, and carbon monoxide which pollutes the air and harms people by reducing the blood’s ability to transport oxygen throughout the body. In addition to federal regulations to reduce the polluting contents of refined fuels, certain states like California have initiated very strict laws relating to exhaust emissions by restricting the amount of pollutants such as carbon monoxide from vehicles. For this reason alone, hybrid vehicles are becoming very popular in California and other states with heavy traffic congestion.

While not a perfect situation (electric or hydrogen powered cars have yet to be perfected for long range driving of at least 300 miles or 480 km) the hybrid car makes sense when gasoline sells for a average of $3.00 per gallon in America and even more in European countries. A good case in point is when New York City Mayor Bloomberg ordered several hundred hybrid SUV’s for use as taxi cabs in his city. So from a “green” or environment standpoint, the idea of the hybrid vehicle is definitely one whose time has come.

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Using Modern Sunscreen Lotions

Summertime is beach time for millions of people all over the world. Due to recent concern regarding the increase of ultraviolet radiation due to depletions in the earth’s ozone layer, sunscreen preparations had been made stronger, and terms such as UVA/UVB and SPF 15 are becoming household terms. Despite aggressive media campaigns to tell people to wear more protective clothing when outside, and especially at the beach, most of these warnings are still disregarded to a great extent, resulting in more and cases of skin damage ranging from serious sunburn to skin cancer.

Many sunscreen preparations said to protect people from the harmful effects of the sun’s rays, actually offer only partial protection. There are preparations that, if used properly, do offer much more protection – providing complete instructions are followed. A good sunscreen preparation should be rated to give protection against the UVA classification of ultraviolet sunlight – the strongest classification. UVA rays penetrate the skin deeper and have more chance to cause skin cancer or melanoma later on. A top quality preparation should also over at least SPF 15 protection; which means that people who have applied this strength of preparation can be exposed to the sun’s rays at least 15 times longer that those without this kind of protection. While SPF 15 preparations are now considered adequate in many locations, there are countries, notably Australia, where preparations going up to SPF 45 are available. Australia is now rated as having the highest levels of solar radiation. Mediterranean countries, including Israel, are not far behind in regards to the dangers of solar thermal radiation.

Even if one goes to the beach “armed” with the strongest sunscreen preparation that money can buy, there is still no guarantee that preparation alone will give adequate protection, even if all the directions are followed as closely as possible. Even if the preparation is continuously reapplied following a dip in the ocean, those planning to spend long periods at either a beach, or outside swimming pool should limit the time that their bodies are actually exposed to the sun’s rays. Small children, who have much more sensitive skin than adults, should be covered with a bathing suit that only lets their hands an feet remain uncovered. Large beach hats should be worn by both children and adults.

As sunscreen preparations usually wash off if a person goes into the water, the sunscreen preparation should be immediately re-applied afterwards. Beach umbrellas and other means of proving shade should be used; and beach goers should drink plenty of water, as dehydration can happen very easily, especially to children. A person’s skin tone is also a very important factor regarding how long one can expose himself or herself to the sun – if at all. And most important, it is advisable to not lay in the sun between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

While many of these advisories may seem to take away from the enjoyment of a beach, lake, or pool outing, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

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Al Gore’s Global Warming Wake Up Call

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore may not yet be running again for the Presidency, but his message is definitely clear, unless immediate steps are made to protect the environment and reverse global warming, our continued life on Earth is definitely at risk. Speaking during a recent hour long interview on CNN’s Larry King Live program, Mr. Gore related in depth his opinions on how lack of intense effort on the part of the present U.S. Administration is spelling disaster to our quality of life, if not life itself.

Mr. Gore’s Academy Award winning documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, gave a not very optimistic account on how the worlds’ eco-system has been severely damaged by Man’s obsession with the use of fossil fuels and other dangerous pollutants, which, in Gore’s opinion, is largely responsible for the state of our environment, including melting Arctic and Antarctic ice shelves at an alarming pace. Gore’s concern for world environment problems goes back many years when he became concerned with many species of animals becoming extinct including a small species of owl that used to inhabit the redwood forest regions of Oregon and Washington State. That concern as well as for the decrease in the atmosphere’s ozone layer (that protective layer against the sun’s damaging radiation) gave him the title of “Mr. Ozone” and made him the brunt of jokes by entertainment comedians including NBC’s Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.

Judging from current realities regarding severe changes in our environment, particularly weather patterns, people are laughing less at “Mr. Ozone” and are now beginning to listen to his warning. Gore’s severe criticism of the Bush Administration’s lack of attention to this increasing problem is one the former VP’s main topics these days. That President George Bush has refused to have his country join the global effort to curtail use of fossil fuels “because it would be damaging to the U.S. economy” is most likely due the President’s own family interest in the oil business, as well as that of his Vice President, Dick Chaney, whose long career with the international oil well servicing company Halliburton has been in the news several times. The Bush family also appears to have close relations with the Saudi Royal Family, from whose country the U.S. still receives nearly 20% of its total petroleum supplies. Although some current attention is beginning to filter out of the Oval Office of the White House, especially in the aftermath of American eco-disasters like Hurricane Katrina, this attention is far less than it should be to help reverse what may become an irreversible ecological trend.

America isn’t the only ecological culprit though, as fast developing nations such as China are consuming fossil fuels in alarming amounts with little or no ecological controls. China’s number of private automobiles alone has more than quadrupled in past five years alone; and its heavy industries have become one of the world’s prime consumers of fuels such as coal and fuel oil, and has turned this country housing more than a fifth of the world’s population into one of the worst polluted.

The melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice is expected cause the worlds oceans to rise at least 7 to 10 meters in the next 10 to 20 years. That’s enough to inundate most world coastal towns and cities, in which at least a billion of the world’s population live. Outside of the possible extinction of many varieties of animal species, including polar bears, seals and walruses, and many species of birds, The oceans themselves will be less able to support marine animals and vegetation as they will become too acid in their content, thus killing the marine vegetation on which many marine animals thrive, and reducing the water’s oxygen content by as much as 25%.

Whether of not Gore does decide to throw his hat into the Democratic Party Presidential race, his message is certainly worth listening to and acting upon. Despite the current Administration’s apprehensions, a few years of ecological ‘adjustment’ is paramount, including drastic curtailment of the use of fossil fuels and switching over to more environmentally friendly energy sources, such as solar energy and hydrogen based fuels. If this doesn’t occur, our future on this planet, an “island we cannot leave”, may be very unpleasant indeed.

We simply have to listen before it will be too late.

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The ‘Electric’ Sun

With dwindling crude oil now hovering in the $65 to $70 per barrel range, and worries about continued global warming being one of the worlds most talked about environmental topics, interest in solar energy is becoming more and more popular in today’s world. That’s right, the sun, or Sol as many still refer to that huge, gaseous ball of energy, 93 million miles away; around which the plant earth rotates once every 365 days. In fact, we humans, and all life for that matter, are so utterly dependant on the sun’s continuous supply of energy, that if deprived of it – for even a few hours, drastic climatic and environment effects will take place.

Interest in harnessing energy from the sun is not new; and even ancient philosophers and astronomers constantly tried to think up ways to utilize more of the sun’s life giving energy. Within the past fifty years, these dreams have begun to become reality as scientists and engineers have begun to create the means of generating energy from the sun’s rays. Israel is one of the pioneers in this endeavor, as the leaders of this tiny country realized from the outset that with little natural energy resources available, ways must be found to create energy at the lowest costs possible. These endeavors have resulted in the majority of homes and apartment buildings having solar energy converters to heat water. Though primitive by many standards, these sun boilers, are composed of two or three large solar ‘collection’ plates, warming water as it flows through them, and afterwards stores the water in insulated tanks for use afterwards – especially at night. Condominium buildings in Israel are now required to have a series of these plates installed to collect enough hot water for use by several families at a time.

While this method has helped save on energy costs, more ambitious researchers all over the world are working of ways to use the sun’s energy to create electricity; enough electricity to run one’s electric powered car, operate appliances and machinery, and keep people comfortably cool in summer and warm in winter. These new photovoltaic or solar electric systems are being designed to convert the sun’s rays into plentiful, low cost electricity. Photovoltaic or PV systems evolve around a specially made crystalline silicon material resembling strips of PVC. This material, when hit by solar rays, creates electricity by a photo-chemical process not much different than the more primitive sun boilers already mentioned. Enough of this material, built into the roof and hood of a car, or affixed to the porch or roof of a house, can create enough electricity to actually operate electricity powered motors – as long as sun shines, that is. The main challenge up to now is storing this energy for use when Sol has either gone to bed or is ‘hiding’ behind a blanket of clouds. Scientific laboratories are still trying to perfect fuel cells and other energy storing devices that will enable this electricity to be stored (like in a large battery) and used as needed. Obviously, solar energy powered devices will work better in locations where the sun shines at least 300 or more days a year; which is why locations such as the Middle East, the American Southwest, and other ’sun friendly’ locations will benefit the most from solar power.

Solar energy is also one of the most environmentally friendly energy sources as well; and could one day help reverse the damage already caused by over-use of fossil fuels. It’s about time everyone, including major oil companies, see the potential benefit of “going (solar powered) electric”.

Source: US Department Energy Site